India has overtaken the U.S. as the top buyer of Nigerian crude oil, a top Indian diplomat in Abuja has said.

Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria Mahesh Sachdev said recent statistics showed that India had been buying more of Nigeria’s crude than the U.S. over the last three months.

“India will continue to cooperate with Nigeria to improve its economy and it will also assist the country in capacity building of workers in both the public and private sectors,” Mr. Sachdev said, during a courtesy visit to the Governor of Niger state in northern Nigeria last Wednesday.

On the bilateral trade, he said the present figure stands at $10 billion, even as the total investment of India in Nigerian economy could be valued at $16.6 billion.

Mr. Sachdev disclosed that India would partner with the government of Kano state to establish a film city and also collaborate with the Niger state government to establish health care facilities as well as improve agriculture.

He also promised assistance in the state on the training of young people who wish to embark on vocational education.

Governor of the state Babangida Aliyu commended India for being one of the few countries that had kept faith with strengthening the work force.

According to him, this has helped Nigeria to develop in every ramification.

India has recently reduced its dependence on Iranian oil in the wake of the U.S. and European sanctions on the import of oil from the Islamic Republic.

Any country which has set itself free from imports is said to be a self sufficient and Prudent.Paradoxically it is appalling to note that India has become Nigeria's largest crude oil buyer.It is the time for our country to arise,awake and move in a sustainable path by shifting to non conventional source of energy.

from:
krishna teja

Posted on: Jul 15, 2013 at 14:47 IST

It difficult to visualize Indian-State leveraging this unique position for the advantage of India or its people. We are one of the largest importer of oil , palmoil, sugar, ferilizers, etc etc but for want of any internal system we always fail to leverage it. So is the case with bumper stock of food grains. We are stuck with our internal contradicitons, politics , courts , PILs etc and cannot leverage this advantage to further our interests in global village.

from:
masa

Posted on: Jul 15, 2013 at 13:32 IST

Thats great....but prior to this india imported much from arabic countries n now with Nigeria...